Category Archives: Wanderings

Snapshots, Wanderings

One sweet shot

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The Lakota Wolf Preserve offers twice daily “wolf watches” for groups to observe the four packs that reside there. I avoided that whole song and dance routine and instead had a private photography session, where for a fee, you get to go inside the fenced-in walkways that surround each enclosure to take photos. There are chest height portals in the fencing that can be opened to allow photos unobstructed by the fencing.

Sweet.

I really had no idea what to expect from the whole experience and was a bit intimidated by the thought of passing myself off as a *serious* photographer.

😉

So long as you’re willing to pay for that distinction, well… I guess someone’s obligated to believe it at least.

So… I went with it and brought extra flash cards and extra batteries and every lens I own. Turns out I didn’t need any of it and used only my regular 28-200 mm lens. Most often the wolves were too close and I had to mind the sleeves of my coat pushed up against those openings in the fence. The wolves are acclimated to people to a degree and are happy to mug for dog biscuits tossed over the fencing for the benefit of paying photographers. They’re also not beyond nudging the wayward elbows of said photographers.

😉

I took so many pics in that two hours, hunched in an uncomfortable position in the freezing cold, that I had cramps in my back and right arm and fingers. From a photography standpoint, I would have preferred some variation in the height of the fence portals, mainly some lower ones because I like to shoot up at animals, for whatever reason, rather than shooting down. I don’t guess that’s really practical considering that the wolves didn’t hesitate to reach up to the openings and a person might lose a pantleg were they any lower.

The snowy background was a dream, but again I think a visit in fall might be nice for a better variety of shots. The guide did his best to keep each pack active and close enough for nice shots, but I found my attention, as is typical, wandering. Most often it was to that pack in the next enclosure that wasn’t performing for us and instead doing what wolves in captivity do, I guess. Laying about napping, chasing one another in play, arguing over who gets to sit on the highest rock.

I had to remind myself a number of times to stop just watching and take pics, darn it! It was so neat to see interactions that look so everyday and familiar to me as a dog owner and frequenter of dog parks.

Any idea that wolves are just like dogs, but in thicker coats, was dispelled pretty quickly. There’s something very *other* about them, even these captive ones, none of whom have probably ever lived in the wild. Physically, there’s the obvious differences… the thin long snout, the heavily furred ears, the superlong front legs, their loping gait and funny posture. Mostly though, it’s something in their eyes, I think, should the weight of their gaze ever fall on you. It feels nothing like that sweet puppy curled beside you on the couch.

Snapshots, Wanderings

The paparazzi bore me

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Wolves yawn and get sleepy at midday, did you know that?

And they curl up on the snow with their noses tucked into their tails just like their domestic cousins do on your couch.

Can you imagine that?

Ever wonder what it feels like to hear a couple dozen of them sing an impromptu concert in response to a raven cronking overhead?

Really, really cool and goose-bump inspiring, actually.

I got to spend a couple hours this afternoon at the Lakota Wolf Preserve taking pics and freezing my butt off in the snow.

Oh! You know those little hand-warmer packets they sell? They’re worth it and feel really really good inside your shoes.

😉

More tomorrow.

Birds, Pastimes, Wanderings

Yes… I can do this!

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I was writing this post in my head yesterday as I sped down the parkway to Island Beach State Park and expected to have to title it, “How Not to Lead Your First-Ever Field Trip”. First on the list was to be, “Be on time for once!” but I was already late when I’d thought of my post title.

Anyway… you might remember me mentioning here that I’m now responsible for planning field trips for my local audubon chapter. It’s gone well so far, but I couldn’t find anyone able to lead our November trip to Island Beach. I was even almost begging near strangers at the hawkwatch in Cape May two weeks ago. Remember Lloyd? Yeah.. he said no, too. I never found anyone, so short of canceling the trip I thought I’d make a go of leading it myself and hoping no one showed up.

😉

The weather was awful… rainy and foggy… so zero participants seemed like a real possibility. It turned out there were seven people waiting on me to get there, and thanks be, all were beginning birders, as is typical for these field trips. Beginning birders are easy to please and, luckily, don’t know gulls any better than I do. We just agreed at the outset to ignore them! We saw some of my beloved sanderlings on the beach and I struggled with some terns that were lazing among the fiishermen, but I decided they were Forster’s and (laugh) they all believed me!

Being *the leader* imparts a certain authority that I’m not entirely comfortable with, but other people who lead trips have told me that pretending confidence is half the game. Whatever. Here is the second of three shorebirds that I can identify in winter. Funny how Black-bellies are so wary compared with the sanderlings… I had to stalk this guy up into the dunes for a pic.

We spent some time scanning Barnegat Bay and came up with a couple groups of Bufflehead and a couple Loons, but that was it. Island Beach is a barrier island and has a wonderful maritime forest like Sandy Hook; we found some Kinglets and Yellow-rumps, but ended up watching the feeders at the nature center to escape the rain for a bit and actually be able to study some common birds. The beginners liked that, I hope, plus I got my first Junco of the season.

The show of the day was the Northern Gannets in a feeding frenzy just off the beach. What cool birds! Sadly, I don’t think Gannets are easy for beginners to appreciate. They all kept asking me, “How can you tell they’re not gulls?” I guess their crappy little binoculars didn’t help any. I remember feeling the same way the first time I saw Gannets… the field trip leader pointed out back then that the Gannets were refrigerator white and pointed at both ends, so I just repeated that back to the group. Plus, the way they drop like arrows into the water is just the coolest thing and unique to Gannets, maybe.

Have a look at this video I found on YouTube to see what I mean. The music is pretty annoying and its filmed on a boat, but pelagic trips are where one expects close views of Gannets. On lucky days they’re close to shore, but I’ve not ever seen them feeding as close as my little group of beginners got to see yesterday.

I also got to ramble on about the huge stand of beach heather that Island Beach has, plus all the other nerdy stuff I know about plants. Nice to have a captive audience, I guess. Reminds me of being in the classroom in front of a group of sleepy 20 year-olds. Anyway… I’m encouraged and think I might be able to do this again sometime. In a pinch anyway.

😉

Oh! This is especially for Susan. There was an older couple with us who are world travelers… going to Borneo to bird in a couple weeks then to some other exotic-sounding place. We got to talking about spring warblers and they said that THE place to be is Magee Marsh in early May. So I believe you now, Susan. Ohio’s on my list for someday.

Snapshots, Wanderings

Behind the scenes

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I wonder if you’re like me: inclined to play with all the toys that make noise, preoccupied with lifting up the table skirt to understand how the trick works, tempted to wander where you shouldn’t, add various other forms of polite misbehavior to the list…

😉

I’m not quite sure what I stumbled across here at the Grounds for Sculpture the other day, but it stopped me in my tracks as quickly as it tickled my imagination.

Can you imagine the fun to work in a place like this? Have characters instead of coworkers? Be able to tell a story by simply moving the frisbee player in front of the painter? Next to the guy with the camera?


At first glance it looked to be a loading area for newly arrived sculpture or something of a temporary graveyard for retired pieces…

But I couldn’t help feeling as if someone had arranged them just so for the whimsy of passerby… like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting… maybe a groundskeeper who secretly wants to study art history and tries his hand at creating a tableau from discarded stories.

Creepy! With pitchfork in hand, these two guarded the entrance to this place I wasn’t meant to see. At least I don’t think I was meant to see it…

😉

Small truths, Snapshots, Travels with the flock, Wanderings

Letting go

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Mother, I’m letting go.
It’s what you did a year ago
Now I know how, I swear
Walking so long in the dark, I arrived
To this now.
I don’t have to tell you
The forces that were my life,
You know.

You who could describe the moon
With so much care
And spoke everything – but not of your fear of dying
You knew why flowers grew on grass
To say, “I’m born”
Or that they might spring from crevices of rock to dance with the wind.
Sometimes your words split darkness the way you crack open a rock
Nothing diminished or unseen.
Like the time we described the good and happy life of a friend
And you said, “I know, I know, but he’s a hurt person.”
He’ll never know how you saw into him.
What Thoreau said he longed to do, you did –
Speak “first thoughts,”
While ours lay like cocoons spread in confusion

You never said the reasons for failure – why we get lost
Only that we are, and whether your thoughts spilled like butterflies into air
Or cut like an axe
You never lost the knowledge of center
That the failure to love ourselves deeply enough
Is more or less fatal

Well, the eventual is now
And I am broken like the moon,
Driftwood in the sea of my own drowning

Let me feel the attention you gave
To this world.
(Were you afraid of dying in case what came afterwards took less?)
With the same care you gave all along.
Safe with yourself.
I’m turning now to that shore.

–Constance Greenleaf

Bits of this were bouncing around in my head as I watched this scene, but it took a happy accident yesterday for me to come across the complete poem. It feels presumptuous to think I know anything of what was going through Lynne’s mind that day on the anniversary of her mom’s passing, but I liked the spirit of this poem, anyway, and was very touched by Lynne’s trust in sharing some of her grief with us.

Hugs to you, Lynne.

Snapshots, Wanderings

Grounds for sculpture

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Art, especially contemporary art, is not really my thing. It’s not ever felt accessible to me. It puzzles me, mostly, or makes me laugh sometimes, but I’ve always felt that I’m somehow missing the point.

Save for a few pleasant experiences in Spain, sculpture displayed in stuffy museums or galleries doesn’t interest me. Set that artwork against a backdrop of autumn’s finest colors and well… I’m there!

I took advantage of the day off, overpaid government employee that I am, and, after doing my civic duty, visited the Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton. It was a perfect day for a stroll through the grounds to enjoy what is also a fine garden and arboretum. The fall colors were gorgeous.

Here’s some favorite views:

This made me smile!

October Gathering by Joan Danziger… I really liked this one, though the scale was tiny compared to many of the others.

Gorgeous colors in the background here…

On Poppied Hill by Seward Johnson

Lintel by Emilie Benes Brzezinski

More pics to come…

Small truths, Travels with the flock, Wanderings

Hints that your friends might be just a little nerdy

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So we were on a non-birdy bird walk, led by my friends Scott and Linda from SHBO, at the Beanery in Cape May. The Beanery can be a very fun place for birds, but it was really quiet in the rain and wind that day.

Good friends or good naturalists can find plenty of ways to amuse themselves when the birding is slow. Mostly we made bad jokes and acted obnoxiously. We had plenty of opportunities to embarrass ourselves this way over the course of the weekend.

Every so often there’d be a new plant we could dork out about, like these sweet gum balls that Lynne wanted to try planting at home in Minnesota or the wild persimmon fruit that I got them to taste just by promising them it wasn’t poisonous.

😉

I don’t guess many non-birders dance this way when spotting a Black Vulture for the first time. A little nerdy? Yes. Fun? Absolutely.

Other than Jay’s prodding it with his foot, this is not a typical scene when normal people spot a black rate snake along the trail, is it?

😉

Nerdy.

A very pretty snake, btw, though it was a tad nervous with all our cameras pointed its way.

At some point we’d given up on seeing any birds and wandered away from the rest of the group, content to find our own fun elsewhere. Who needs birds when you’ve got friends that are just as nerdy as you are, anyway?

Note: Susan, Lynne, Jay from birdJam and Delia will not take offense at my calling them nerdy. We’re cut from the same cloth, I think. That’s why I like them so well.